Here is my early 80's Takara Custom 12. I got it last fall. I love it. It rolls like silk. I had both the front and back wheel bearings replaced/repacked plus the main bearings. I had the wheels trued. I had to replace the back wheel as it was damaged. I've got a Cree light on it. I get a lot of compliments on this bike. Beautiful 80's vintage that breezes on down the road and cruises forever after the work. Fairly light Hi-Tensile frame. Anyone with history info on the Takara Custom 12 please post. Suntour components. New Kenda K35 tires and Cloud 9 bike seat.

I took some liberties with this 1984 ish Takara mixte, replaced the drop bars with North Roads, then flipped them just to try it out.




Started like this:

I traded for this Takara Team recently...have not even had a chance to ride it yet!

Tange #3
Full Suntour Superbe with Sugino Cranks
Nitto H-bar
Brooks B-17 Saddle

Dang....guess I am going to have to take some new pics...(after some clean-up, new tape and such) This is an old, 81 Takara ($20 garage sale find) I had initially bought many years ago, to strip of it's alloy wheels, alloy cranks, brakes, and a few other bits to put on my lower end, 78 Takara...that bike got borrowed and thrown away! So, this sat in the back of the garage for 15 years. About 3 years ago, my youngest found it, and it was his size, so we rebuilt it. I got back into road biking after a 25 mile ride, him on it and me an a Magna MTB...This pic is the only one I found...I know BAD (ND Side).This was shot mid 35 mile ride. On the left is my 79 Schwinn LeTour ($25 Garage Sale Find), pre-rebuild.

This was my late younger brothers 73ish.
I was converting it to a more upright position because of his health issues.
it's now a 3X9, being ridden by my best friends son.

So what sort of tubing is in these bikes?

Dunno if you Takara owners are interested but Takara is Japanese for 'treasure'.

I know where this bridge is. My repair shop is about a mile from it.

Built this one up about a month ago or so.

Couldn't find much info on them, but from what pics i've seen it appeared that they made solid low end to mid range bikes. This one is Tange 900 for tubing, i've never seen anything high end from them though. I received this as a frame with saddle, derailleurs and shifters, the rest i built up with my own parts, including a nice suntour sprint sealed bearing wheelset. I dug around the bar tape bin and somehow managed to find matching bar tape as well. It rode and performed really well and now has a new owner that loves the bike.

Bike SHOP? Or other? Yes, the bridge over Boca Ciega, nice views, but if it is windy out...VERY exposed!

My first "real" bike was a ~'82 Takara Sport-10, the lowest in their product line. By the time I sold it three years later, I had upgraded everything but the handlebars. It even had handbuilt wheels! (I wish I could find that bike now...) The frame was hi-ten steel. When my bike was new, Takara had a catalog that showed Dura-Ace equipped bikes, but I never saw one. I have personally never seen a higher end model than a mid-80s touring bike, which was also nicely built. The few Takaras I've seen all had exceptional paint, and were well made for working class bikes.

I just do some bicycle repair and restoration work over off 95th st. Not far from the KOA.

Low tide is another not so pleasant ride across.

HA!!!
Low Tide CAN be pretty nasty! Not just there, any of my by the water routes!!! And if there is a Red Tide running...I stay more to the Tampa Bay side of the peninsula!

Takara was a full range brand, so you could see anything from hi-tensile sttl and a top grade butted CrMo tubeset, depending on the level of the bicycle.

Many Takara bicycles were manufactured by Kuwahara. The year can be determimed from the serial number, which is usually stamped on the non-drive side of the seat tube, in the vicinity of the front derailleur mount. It's an open code, format YY MM XXXX, where YY represents the last wo digits of the year and MM representts the month. Anything built in October-December typically represents the following model year (i.e. serial number 77 10 1234 would be a 1978 model built in October 1977).

My 78 Takara I bought Brand New, in Bridge City Texas was a low end one. $135 on sale, down from $165 (a lot of money when you are making $4.25/hr). Hi-10 steel frame, chrome steel wheels, chrome cottered cranks, DiaComp dual position brakes.

The blue bike is my beloved 77 Takara which I bought second hand in 1980 and rode for 25 years until I started shrinking and decided I needed a smaller bike. So I picked up the 83 Takara tribute. The 77 originally came with bar end shifters, which I will be switching to 83.

Those are really nice shape for their age. I think I was lucky to get mine in such good shape.

1980's Takara Highlander Mountain Bike. Suntour and Diacomp components. I have found very limited information on these bikes but I did find a Highlander online with a serial number within double-digit range of mine and it was listed as a 1980 model but with drop bars!

My dad picked up a Takara 10-speed several years ago and it was a total tank compared to my Highlander. I think this bike has cro-mo main tubes at the very least. No idea if the stays and fork are cro-mo or hi-ten. My limited time on it has been fun and it's a very smooth ride.

In this photo the rims are from a mid-90's Trek MTB and they are wearing 55mm Schwalbe Big Apple tires. Everything else is stock.

This TAKARA is strapped to a fencepost near the road, for sale $50. It has a double (small diameter) or split topbar, drop handlebar, DiaCompe quill stem, Sugino crank, Suntour deraileur, side pull brakes, lug pedals, rear rack, frumpy replacement saddle, faded blue in color. Wheels turn smoothly, but chain and deraileurs badly rusted. Probably 27 inch tires. In viewing other pictures of Takara's, none are of the top tubes are of the DOUBLE/SPLIT type. Should I snap this bike up, hopefully less than $50?

In process of restauration

...

27in Takara, @ 6'5 I can barely climb aboard!

Sorry to bring this thread up from the grave, but this is one of the first threads I found when I was googling Takara a month or so ago and it took me a month to get enough posts to post pictures. But I like the Classic and Vintage sub-forum here and hope to lurk and look at all the bikes that get posted in it.

This isn't the same model of Takara I had in high school, but it is very close. I had a 960 Deluxe Touring and this is a 950 Deluxe 12. I came across it on craigslist and the guy wanted $175 for it and I got it for $135. Because I was jonesing an old bike like I had 40 years ago, I didn't have a problem paying that. Especially for the condition this thing was in. I likely would have paid more because I wasn't buying a bike, I was purchasing nostalgia.

The tires, while the tread was new were terribly dry rotted so they have been replaced along with tubes and rim tape. I added toe clips and straps which is nice because if I want to take a quick spin, I can hop on with my running shoes and get out without changing shoes. Despite it being in good condition, I replaced the foam bar grips with cotton tape because that is what my bike had and I like the feel. And obviously the brakes were so hard that slowing down would scare the hell out of anyone in the area so they have been replaced. Last night I removed the cranks and will start re-greasing the bottom bracket, the hubs, headset and freewheel because 40 year old grease is not good. All the cables are in excellent shape so they will be lubed and reinstalled. The labels are in good condition, the seat is original with the Takara logo on the back and I have the original dealer sticker I will put back on the seat tube. All the reflectors and turkey levers are intact and I'll leave them because I love that this old bike is a survivor and not a restoration.

This photo is after replacing the tires and bar tape and a wipe down with a rag. That is the condition this thing was in. The frame is a little smaller than I would like, but ridable for my height. I feel 18 again when I ride this bike.

That's a good looking bike, and $135 is the cheapest I've heard to take 40 years off your life! Plus, the bike is actually my size so just a teeny bit jealous.

One small caution - if that is the original seatpost, you are almost certainly well past the minimum insertion mark. That's a good way to get you and your bike hurt. You can usually find long seatposts for not a lot of money. That might be cheaper than replacing your front teeth.